In a letter to Betty Hester dated August 28, 1955, Flannery O’Connor wrote: “If you live today you breathe in nihilism. In or out of the Church, it’s the gas you breathe.”[1. Flannery O’Connor, The Habit of Being, hereafter HB (New York: Far … [Read more...]
Articles
Flannery Was Right
The Problem of Nihilism Within the Catholic Church
February 26, 2022 by Fr. Damian J. Ference
Anger Reconsidered
January 27, 2022 by Julia Hejduk
Note: This essay first appeared on the Christ-Animated Learning Blog with Christian Scholar’s Review. The Prince of Peace said, “I have not come to bring peace, but a sword” (Mt 10:34). Amid the ubiquitous anger of present America, espec … [Read more...]
Christian Joy and Human Sadness
January 27, 2022 by S. E. Greydanus
“Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice” (Philippians 4:4). This and other exhortations in Scripture have shaped Christian tradition with the understanding that joy is meant to be part of our life. It’s traditionally counted a … [Read more...]
Conscience and the Service of Authority
Drawing Pastoral Insights from Joseph Ratzinger
January 27, 2022 by Fr. Niccolo Florencio
There is, at present, a crisis of authority within the Catholic Church, expressed no more clearly by the clamor for democratization outfitted by the various movements of protest which attempt to raze the “old guard” of bureaucratic est … [Read more...]
The Church’s Teaching on Marriage, Part Two
January 27, 2022 by Richard P. Maggi, Esq.
Go to Part I Go to Part III Contribution of Families to Society “The very experience of communion and sharing that should characterize the family’s daily life represents its first and fundamental contribution to society.” FC at 43. “The … [Read more...]
A New Approach for Pastoral Ministry
Incorporating Biblical Creation Imagery and Apocalyptic Metaphors into Pastoral Care and Ministry
January 27, 2022 by Fr. Moses Mary Apreku
Biblical theology of creation is applicable in pastoral ministry, because of its rich cornucopia of imagery and metaphors of myth and apocalypse, imagination and paradoxes employed in demonstrating God’s omnipotence, omniscience, and o … [Read more...]
Whose Rite? A Response to E. Tyler Graham
December 24, 2021 by Alex Erickson
Recently, E. Tyler Graham wrote an article for this publication[1. E. Tyler Graham, “Shepherding the Flock Out of the 1962 Missal,” Homiletic and Pastoral Review, November 2021, www … [Read more...]
Transcendence After America Project
Restoring Jesus Christ to the Public Square
December 24, 2021 by Matthew Tsakanikas, STD
On the New Evangelization . . . . . . For her part, the Church in the United States is called, in season and out of season, to proclaim a Gospel which not only proposes unchanging moral truths but proposes them precisely as the key to … [Read more...]
Rethinking Bella Dodd and Infiltration of the Catholic Priesthood
December 24, 2021 by Kevin Symonds
Dr. Bella Dodd, the famous one-time Communist lawyer who reverted to the Catholic Faith of her youth, has been the subject of much discussion over the past few decades. She is said to have planted 1,100 to 1,200 men into the Catholic … [Read more...]
The Church’s Teaching on Marriage, Part One
December 24, 2021 by Richard P. Maggi, Esq.
Go to Part II Go to Part III It is often said that the Church is too concerned about sexual morality. The Church should rather be concerned about poverty, discrimination, and climate change. Such an accusation is a bit disingenuous in … [Read more...]
Thinking About Ministry After Covid
Based On Ecclesiological Insights of Pope Francis
December 24, 2021 by Fr. Nihal Abeyasingha
The opening paragraph of Lumen Gentium states, “Since the Church is in Christ like a sacrament or as a sign and instrument both of a very closely knit union with God and of the unity of the whole human race, it desires now to unfold more f … [Read more...]
Parish Evangelization
November 24, 2021 by John F. Kippley
It is common to hear or read references to the New Evangelization based on the Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation of St. John Paul II, Christifidelis Laici (On the Vocation and the Mission of the Lay Faithful in the Church and in the World) … [Read more...]
Shepherding the Flock Out of the 1962 Missal
November 24, 2021 by E. Tyler Graham
The time has come, says God to Moses. You must lead my people out of Egypt, out of captivity, toward the Promised Land.[1. Ex 3:10.] Unfortunately for the eager travelers, the journey lasts 40 years,[2. Deut 1:3.] and along the way the … [Read more...]
Reflections on Three Saving Mysteries of the Christmas Season
November 24, 2021 by Jeffrey Tranzillo
“I will tell of the decree of the LORD: He said to me, ‘You are my son, today I have begotten you’” (Ps 2:7). The psalmist is referring here to Israel’s anointed, or messianic, king. As God’s anointed one, he is God’s “son,” God’s earthly re … [Read more...]
On Humility, or, Christianity as Bull-dung
November 24, 2021 by Julia Hejduk
Note: This essay first appeared on the Christ-Animated Learning Blog with Christian Scholar’s Review. In a post engagingly entitled “Academic Freedom: From Ram-skit to Bull-dung,”[1. Crystal Downing, “Academic Freedom: From Ram-skit to Bu … [Read more...]
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